THIS CHAPTER SUGGESTS THAT YOU SAVE MONEY BY COOKING GASTROPUB-STYLE FOOD FOR WHICH YOU’D HAPPILY PAY GOOD MONEY ON A SATURDAY NIGHT. SURELY THIS IS A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS? AM I OFF MY ROCKER? WELL, YES, POSSIBLY, BUT THAT’S NOT THE POINT. THE POINT IS THAT CHEFS NEED TO MAKE A LIVING FROM THE CRAFT OF COOKING, SO WE BECOME VERY GOOD AT THRIFTY SHOPPING – USING LESS FASHIONABLE CUTS OF MEAT AND FISH AND COOKING ONLY SEASONAL FRUIT AND VEGETABLES.

My journey in food has taken me all the way from the poshest Michelin-starred food to the very real world of the gastro pub. I can’t put fillet steak, loin of lamb or turbot on my menus (as much as I love them all) as they’re all very expensive, so my solution is to be a little more inventive with cheaper ingredients.

As you turn the following pages, you will see pictures of veal shins, lamb’s kidneys, fish heads and rabbit, all of which sell very well. People often comment on how much they have enjoyed these things but then add that they would never cook them at home. Well, that’s all about to change: here are the recipes and all the ingredients are sitting waiting for you in your butcher’s, grocer’s and fishmonger’s, so you really have no excuse.

OK, you might not rush out and braise veal shins on a Wednesday night after work, but why not give them a go at the weekend?

Incidentally, while many of these dishes have been hijacked by us chefs, most of them have their origins in traditional peasant cookery. Take the Navarin of Lamb, for instance; it uses neck of lamb, which is considerably cheaper than loin of lamb. The neck is a tough piece of meat and almost inedible if not cooked properly, yet if cooked slowly over an hour or so the result is meat that simply melts in the mouth. All the cunning gastro chef has done is reinvent these classics and hope you don’t discover that you can cook them yourself at home. Oops!

Where there is a bit of messy preparation, I have suggested asking the fishmonger or butcher to do the prep for you, but why not give it a go? Unprepped meat is cheaper than prepped, obviously, so it is worth trying your hand; and nothing will impress bystanders in your kitchen more than you pulling out a whole, skinned rabbit and deftly dissecting it for the pot!